A few months ago I had the urge to attempt to load firmware of the NS-DVs cousin, the iriver x20, onto the NS-DV. I didn't have much success, as the NS-DV would reject the firmware. Today, I realized I had a player which still had the old firmware version 1.104 on it. I figured maybe this version doesn't check the firmware before loading it. So I renamed the x20's firmware file to “NS-DVxG.rom” as I did before, I put the file on the player, and pulled the USB cord... The player gave me the usual loading firmware message. To my surprise it then said “SUCCESS!” and shut off. I figured that was it, I bricked it. I held the power button and was soon greeted by a glorious, albeit upside down, “iriver” logo. Success indeed!

But I must say, it isn't all that impressive. I have to hand it to Insignia, they put much more thought into their version of the firmware than iriver did. With the exception of faster start up times, and prettier graphics, the x20s firmware is quite inferior to the NS-DVs. For example, there is no full-screen album art, the volume can't be changed while viewing photos, you can't use the menu button to quickly exit the menu (you're trapped in there until you scroll around to “Now Playing” and hit select), you can't hit the up button to view the OSD while watching a movie, photos can't be rotated, and the LCD can't be turned off. It seems like iriver spent more time on eye candy, then they did on usability...

Because it wasn't designed for the NS-DV, there are some weird problems. Headphone jack B doesn't work, the screen is upside down (can be corrected in the menu though), left and right are reversed (due to the screen being upside down), and the hold switch is backwards for some reason...

You probably shouldn't go nuts trying to get this onto your NS-DV. It's not worth the trouble. Although, a person could get used to these faster start up times... Now that I know it's possible for this thing to load so quickly, I think I'll add this to the feature request list...

Disclaimer:
Trying this will void your warranty. After loading this firmware, it is not possible to return to the original firmware. I cannot be held responsible if your NS-DV blows up after trying this.

Very cool experiment, Tobey...It'd be nice if we could work out some sort of dual-boot situation...if only to stare at the pretty interface for a while! I think the original GUI has given me blue poisoning.

Were you able to revert back to the Insignia firmware after this? I suppose it would have to be a one time thing, unless you can get your hands on a copy of the original 1.104 firmware file.

epithetless,
I don't even want to try to revert, because the only way to do that would be to install 1.105 or 1.200, which would prevent me from doing this again. But I assume it's possible, unless iriver implemented the same hash system...

voxitage,
I'll have to try and edit the firmware a little and see if it accepts it. At least iriver supplies a recovery tool, so I'm not SOL if things go awry... I haven't tried m3u yet, but I'll definitly try it later tonight. I wanna see if it works as much as you do.

Did you rename the "X20.HEX" file to "NS-DVxG.rom"?
Or was it some other file?

Can only upgrade firmware so far then?
I believe there is a workaround. The file "SYS_CONF.JTT" on our players records the firmware version on the player. If we edit it, we may be able downgrade simply by entering a version lower than the firmware version we want to load.
Still, it would take someone with guts to try it.

My firmware is 1.104. Can i change my insignia to a x20 with the firmware of x20? (renaming first, of course) and if i do it i will have the Browser device? ( In the x20 manual it have a Browser device)
Tobey, you say that Headphone jack B doesn't work, Never????
Can i return after to a insignia firmware (1.200)?
Very very thanks, my english is very poor. I have a insignia ns-dv4g and i love it. I´m very happy to find this forum!!!!!!!
I have too a Meizu M6 4g

Thank you very much,
I will do what you say, I will put the new firmware 1.200.
Yes, i was talking about the finder, to be able to accede to music from the folders that I put in the folder music directly,
I don't like to have to accede to the labels with the id tags.
Thanks

so if we already have the 1.200 firmware there's no way we can do this? not even if it means messing around with something? cause i've voided the warrenty on most of every electronic device i own that can be hacked/tinkered and i really wanna try this out.

If someone knew how to mess with something to make this work, that would be a major breakthrough. But right now, it can't be done because the iriver x20 firmware will be seen as a corrupt firmware file because it won't have the correct checksum.